A Secret Hidden From You
by ninjatomomi
Summary: Matthew, a boy taken from his native land, is bought with five other boys by an unknown man and taken to a mysterious castle. As servants start to disappear, Matthew can't help but feel that something is strange about his new master...AU
1. The Beginning

A Secret Hidden From You

Chapter 1: The Beginning

"Charles! Charles! Where are you?!" The man called Charles opened the door to a magnificent study, dark in color and lit only by candles. No natural light shone through the heavily draped windows but it didn't matter, not for his master. "Right here my Lord," he answered the call. "Oh! Good! Do you know what today is?" "…Forgive my forgetfulness, I do not remember." "I thought so. To day is the day that the cargo ship comes to the port. You know the one that comes in only once every year…" "Ah yes, that one" "I need you to go down and get six units of cargo alright?" "Yes my Lord."

Charles closed the door to the study and made his way down the long hallway to the front of the large mansion, where his carriage was waiting. He got into the driver's seat, slapped the reigns and went off towards the port. The village that the port was located in wasn't the largest city in the country but it wasn't the smallest either. It was big enough to have all the shops the rich mansion owners that lived around the town wanted yet small enough that everyone knew everybody. The port was crowded when Charles got there, all the shop owners needed to fill their stock for the year. He stopped the carriage on the dock near the least crowded area of the large ship.

The captain of the boat, a large Russian who went by the name of Ivan, greeted Charles when he climbed off the carriage. "Hello Charles," he said with a large grin on his face. "Have you and your master had a good year?" "Yes, it's been pleasant." "Good" "Now, Ivan, if you please, the cargo?" "Ah yes, only for one of my best customers." The large Russian led Charles to a secret door hidden from the rest of the boat and away from the large crowd of people. "This time I also stopped in the West. Most of the others you have bought over the years have come from Asia. This time I decided to add something new to the pick." When Ivan opened the secret hatch, Charles saw hundreds of nude boys, chained to the walls of the ship. They ranged from the darkest of skin Charles had ever seen to the lightest, almost a sickly pale. One by one he went through the boys, quickly scanning their faces and whether or not they looked sickly and diseased. When he got to his sixth pick, Charles noticed a fair skinned, blonde boy. He walked over and grabbed the boy's face. The boy opened his eyes, reveling a stunning sea of blue-violet that Charles had never seen before. Charles quickly picked the boy, forgetting to check for illness or defect. The boy's pale body and violet eyes were too gorgeous to pass up.

Ivan handed each of the boys a ragged shirt, too big for any of them so that it covered all the way down to their knees. As Charles loaded each of them into the black carriage, Ivan sauntered over. "I'll send the bill over like normal. If there are problems with any of them, I'll be here till Monday of next week." He smiled and walked back to the other customers who were in need of his help. Charles then climbed back onto the carriage and started the long journey back to the mansion.

Inside the carriage, the other boys sat and chatted with one another, trying to get acquainted. Matthew, however, decided to gaze out the window at the scenery that flew by. He pondered about his future now that he was sold to some guy he had never met before. He was surprised that he was even sold in the first place, knowing that with his "condition" he could never do hard labor in the sun like the other boys. Matthew sighed and returned to gazing out the window.

It was night by the time Charles and the precious cargo reached the mansion. As Matthew exited the carriage with the other boys, he looked to the castle like mansion. In the dark it was positively frightening. Its dark towers loomed over the boys, a silent foreboding as if it were predicting a horrible future for them all. The large emptiness of the gardens that surrounded the castle looked like a dark sea of black with the trees and hedges taking the forms of mythical sea beasts. Matthew shivered, trying to think of happier thoughts and not of the eerie castle and its gardens. Charles led the group of boys into the house, down a long corridor into a hallway that was separate from the main one. "These," he pointed to six doors along the wall, "are your rooms. Pick wisely because you won't get to change your rooms. There are servant's clothes in each of the dressers in the rooms. Tomorrow morning, I will wake you up and my Lord will assign each of you a duty that you'll perform." With all that said, Charles turned and left the boys. They quickly scrambled to grab a room in which to call their own. Matthew, unfortunately, was too slow and had to pick the room the farthest away.

He opened the door to his new room. Inside, a mirror was hung above a small dresser that had an already lit candle on it. On the wall opposite the dresser was a bed. Next to the bed was a window without drapes. The moonlight shone through the window, lighting up his dim room. Matthew walked over to the bed and pulled out the sheet. He placed it over the window, blocking out the light. "Good," he thought, "I won't have to worry about the sunlight in the morning." Tired of all the day's activities, Matthew climbed into the bed and under the covers. As he started to fall asleep, he couldn't help but feel that something about the castle, Charles, and his mysterious new master was strange. He hoped that his uneasy feeling was due to all the events that had happened but he couldn't shake the feeling away.

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**Author's Note**

Hi there! So...this is my very first story...I hope that you'll enjoy it. I'm not the best writer on the planet so if you see any errors, typos, grammar mistakes, anything please send me a message or a review that way I can fix it. I decided to start writing this fic because I really need practice at writing. Hopefully this will present me with the opportunity to get better ^.^. I'll try my best to update consistently but it I can't make any promises...Oh! Before I forget, Charles is a made up character. I just couldn't see any of the real characters being a butler in this story so I made a character up. I hope that he's an ok character. So with that said I hope that you'll enjoy the story!


	2. Of Jobs and Meeting You

A Secret Hidden From You

Chapter 2: Of Jobs and Meeting You

**Authors Note**

Hi there everyone! Thank you so much for putting this story on your alert list, favoring it, and giving it reviews! All of these good things are boosting my confidence in my writing. Thank you so much!

When I was going through my posted chapter I realized that I forgot a disclaimer so:

_**Disclaimer**_: I don't own Hetalia. I wish I did but I don't. I do, however, own Charles the butler.

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"Wake up!" A forceful shake to the shoulder broke Matthew's peaceful sleep. Opening his eyes, he saw Charles, already at the dresser, a pair of black pants in his arms. Matthew got out of bed and joined Charles, who proceeded to give him the pants as well as a nice white shirt. "Put these on and get ready. Meet outside in the hallway in ten minutes." Matthew nodded at the instructions while Charles turned and left the boy so that he could go and wake the others.

Matthew looked at the clothes given to him. The shirt was a little too big for him as well as the pants. After he put on the clothes, he looked in the tiny mirror above the dresser and tried to fix his hair. "Darn you," Matthew thought at the one unruly hair atop his head. "Why can't you stay with the rest of my hair?" The curl bobbed up and down as if it were mocking him. Giving up, he left his room and joined the other boys in the hallway.

Charles arrived soon after and carted the boys off to the kitchen. Along the way, the group passed the large staircase that led from the main hall and foyer to the back bedrooms, libraries, studies, and other mysterious hidden rooms. Matthew couldn't help but stop and gaze at the marveling staircase. Its rails gleamed a golden color as the light from the chandelier above shone upon it.

"You there! Boy!" Charles' voice broke him out of his trance. "Hurry up! We don't have all day!" Matthew turned and ran towards the rest of the group as they headed into the kitchen.

Each boy received a half filled bowl of porridge and nothing else. Matthew couldn't help but think that it was the blandest porridge he had ever tasted. He was, however, too hungry to really care and quickly finished his bowl. As he sat ad waited for his peers, he examined each person around him. To his left there was a dark skinned boy with a lazy grin upon his face. He had stunning green eyes that matched his dark complexion. Next to him were two identical looking boys. Though they looked alike, one had darker hair and eyes. Apparently, to Matthew at least, the green eyed boy had made the dark haired twin angry and they started to argue rather loudly. While they fought, Matthew turned to the two boys on his right. They were pale, much like himself however, they had jet black hair and brown eyes. One of the two boys had such long hair that Matthew almost thought he was a girl. It took him a while but he noticed that the other boy lacked feminine qualities.

After all the boys were finished eating, Charles came and ushered the boys back to the main hallway and lined them up in front of the stair case. Matthew was on the end of the line closest to the main door. As they waited, he took the time to look around using his peripheral vision. He saw the fancy front door, the gilded staircase, the man coming down the gilded staircase…wait, a man was coming down the stairs? At this Matthew had to turn and look. The man moving down the stairs had wavy blonde hair, much like Matthew's own hair. He was tall and thin and his face was lively and full of color. He sauntered over towards Charles and began a conversation with that Matthew could hear but couldn't understand.

After a few minutes, the blonde man turned to look at the boys. "My name is Francis Bonnefoy. I am the owner of this house and your new master. Every thing I say and tell you, you will obey and listen." He looked towards the boys and walked gracefully to the first boy, the tan one with green eyes. "What is your name boy?" "Antonio sir" "Antonio…How old are you Antonio?" "Eighteen sir." "Ah…Alright then." So it went, Francis would ask for the boy's name and age, and would study each boy as he gave his answer. Matthew listened intently, learning and memorizing each boy's name. Besides Antonio, he learned that the twins' names were Lovino and Feliciano, both seventeen, the boy with the feminine hair was Yao, age eighteen, and the last boy was Kiku, age seventeen.

As he was mulling over his newly found information, Matthew never noticed Francis step in front of him until his chin was thrust upward so that he was looking into Francis' ocean blue eyes. He watched as Francis studied his face and took in how the chandelier light made his blue eyes shine in clear flowing waves.

Francis had never seen a boy so beautiful, if that was the right word. The boy's eyes shown like two amethyst stones in a shade of purple he had never before witnessed. He continued to examine the thin boy in front of him taking how sickly pale and frighteningly skinny he was. "What is your name son?" "M-Matthew." The boy's voice was soft and Francis had almost missed his answer. "How old are you Matthew?" "Six-Sixteen." Francis let go of Matthew's chin, letting it drop down, taking the gorgeous eyes with it.

"I have decided which boy will get which job. Antonio, you and Yao will work as general servants. You will greet visitors, clean, and run errands. Since visitors will see you, you must keep yourselves clean and well kept. First impressions are a must. Feliciano and Kiku, you two will work in the kitchens helping the permanent chefs prepare general meals, banquets, and dinners. Romano and Matthew, you two will work outside as gardeners. You'll trim the plants and make sure that the gardens look presentable. These are the jobs you boys will be performing unless I change your position or assign you a new job. I expect you to start today. Charles has already been sent to deliver your job related clothing to your rooms. Change into them and begin your jobs at once." At this Francis turned and left the group of boys. Slowly, they began to make their way back to their rooms to change their clothing.

At the words "gardener" Matthew felt his heart drop. How would he be able to survive with his "condition" being out in the sun? "Maybe" he thought, "maybe I can talk to Mr. Bonnefoy…that's it, he might be able to switch my job with someone else…" Unfortunately for Matthew, Francis had already left, forcing him to join the other boys in retreating back to his room.

When he opened his door, Matthew was appalled that someone had removed his makeshift curtain. Sunlight from the morning sun filled his room causing him to press his body up against the wall. Moving along the wall, he made his way towards the dresser to find his clothes. Hastily, and without getting into contact with the sun, Matthew changed into his clothes. Looking out of the undraped window, he guessed that, by the position of the sun, it was almost midday. Sighing, he made his way towards the door, unwilling to start his job in the harsh conditions presented to him. Just the thought of what would happen with his "condition" made him shiver. "I'll get out of this one way or another" he promised himself. The only bad thing, he had to figure out a way to ditch his job first.

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Well there you go chapter two. If you're wondering, Matthew's condition will be revealed in the next chapter. I'm sorry that the story is moving along really slowly but it will pick up speed after the third chapter which will probably be posted either Saturday or Sunday. I already have up to chapter nine planned out though I'm not sure when I'll get to actually writing chapters four through nine because of school...Anyways I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and like always please review. If you see any mistakes please make me aware of them. Thanks!


	3. Getting to Know You

A Secret Hidden From You

Ch. 3 Getting to Know You

I don't know if I have to put a disclaimer on every chapter so unless someone tells me that I have to I'm just gonna say look at the beginning of chapter 2 for it. :)

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After exiting his room, Matthew met up with Lovino. Together, they left for the gardens while the others went to their respective jobs.

The gardens were located around the large castle. They consisted of large grassy areas, with flower beds, trees and bushes scattered here and there. There was also a small gazebo, located next to a pond, which offered shade to needy garden goers and space for afternoon tea and lunch.

Matthew had never seen such a greener place. He spied the gazebo but reasoned that it was too far from the nearest shady place if he tried to run for it. As he continued his search, a large willow caught his eye. It was located closer to the castle than the other trees he saw, which was a good thing since most of the shrubs and flowerbeds were closer to the house.

"Well, we better get started," Lovino grumbled, successfully snapping Matthew out of his thoughts of salvation. The two then grabbed their tools and made their way to a group of flowerbeds that were desperately in need of attention. As Lovino plainly walked across the yard, Matthew more or less tried to stay within the boundaries of shade. He would either run from shady place to shady place or he would walk within the shady patches. Though he tried to stay out of reach of the sun at all times, it was alright if he was exposed to if for a few minutes. This style of movement continued on for about two hours. The boys would reach a place in need of extreme care, all of them were located close to the castle (and to Matthew's delight, in the shade), take care of it, and then move to a new place. As the two moved from place to place, Lovino would throw Matthew a few odd looks once in a while, amused at how the other boy moved from shady spot to shady spot.

By noon Matthew couldn't take it any more, he had to get out of the sun. Lucky for him, the two had made it to a group of shrubs that were so overgrown, that Matthew could hide within the branches and never be seen, which was what he did. He went into the brush and watched Lovino do work on a shrub further away. The second he thought that Lovino was too absorbed in his work, he made a mad dash for the door, which coincidently was about ten feet in front of him.

Once inside, the cool floor beneath his bare feet and the cool air around him was a pleasant change from the harsh, hot air and ground that was outside. Matthew then realized that he should get as far away form the door as he could possibly be so that Lovino or anybody else wouldn't see him skipping his duties. He started a brisk walk towards the main hallway but got distracted by a hallway he hadn't noticed before. The hallway was less fancier than the others he had seen and he quickly picked a random door on the left side. He opened the door and walked inside. What he saw amazed him for he had seen nothing like it before.

A large painting, ragged and fading was on the wall facing him. It depicted a young boy of about ten maybe eleven years of age standing next to a large old fashioned globe. The boy had the same blond hair and blue eyes as his master, but it couldn't have been him. Mr. Bonnefoy looked twenty four at the most while the painting looked almost a hundred years old…

Matthew turned away from the painting and saw another. This one looked more recent than the other. The man in the middle of the portrait had his head upon the back of his hand, looking out into some unknown distant thing. However, even though it looked newer, the man's clothes indicated a distant time. The fancy articles had ruffles and lace and looked like they were made from velvet or some other expensive material. The man in this portrait Matthew could identify him as the master.

Francis had decided early on that he was going to see for himself how the new workers were doing. Sure he had sent Charles to do it but he still wanted to do something. After all he wanted to see how that one boy…Matthew, if he remembered correctly, was doing. The boy had been a sickly pale color, something that even Francis could see that was unhealthy looking. Francis, believing that he was doing something good for the boy, had assigned him the garden duty just so that the boy could get some sun. Hopefully, it would add some color to the boy's skin.

As he walked to the main hallway from his study, Francis noticed an open door down a hallway. Confused and somewhat suspicious, he walked closer to the ajar door as quietly as he could. "What's this?" There gazing at one of the portraits was Matthew. His focus was solely on the painting in front of him. As curious as he was, Francis was somewhat peeved that one of his servants had disobeyed him. Matthew was supposed to be outside tending the gardens. Silently, he snuck into the room, right behind Matthew and grabbed his shoulder.

Matthew let out a screech. When he had felt the sudden pressure on his shoulder he had jumped and turned at the same time. This had ended badly though for he had fallen on his butt. Wincing in pain, he looked up only to see Mr. Bonnefoy trying to, but ultimately failing, in keeping his laughter hidden. Matthew could feel his face redden in embarrassment as Francis, still chuckling, held out his hand to help him up. When he was up on his feet, Matthew saw his master make notions for him to come closer. "Matthew, I want to know why you weren't working. Here, we'll go to my office on the upper level and you can tell me all about it." With that said, the two left the room, Matthew following a little behind his master, up to the upper story of the house.

Meanwhile, Charles was checking on the other boys. Feliciano and Kiku were doing well in the kitchen, and Antonio and Yao were completing all their tasks as well. All that was left was to check on the boys working in the gardens. When Charles reached the gardens, he was surprised to see Lovino stabbing a shovel into the grass, creating little crescent shaped marks. "What are you doing?!" Charles shrieked, running up to Lovino and snatching the shovel away. "Hey! Give that back!" "No! Why are you doing that?" "I'm exerting my anger! Why do I have to work if he doesn't?" "Who?" "Who what?" "Who isn't working?" "That other boy. I can't remember his name. I think it started with an M…Hey! Where are you going?!" While Lovino went on his spiel, Charles had looked around realizing that Matthew wasn't there. "Oh dear, this is so bad. I must tell my Lord."

Francis had dragged Matthew to his private little office on the second floor. As Francis went to sit in his chair, Matthew gazed around the room. Bookshelves, maps, and paintings covered the walls. The windows, like most of the other windows in the house, were covered in heavy, red drapes that went well with the brown walls. "So, Matthew," Francis began, startling Matthew out of his thoughts. "Why did you stop working?" "Ummm…W-Well I…" "Yes?" "I h-have this th-thing…" "A thing…?" "A sp-special c-condi-" Matthew was cut off by the slamming of the door to the office. "My Lord! One of the boys is missing!" "Oh! Hello Charles. Well, I found the missing boy, he's right here." Francis pointed to Matthew. "We were just discussing why he wasn't working like I had wanted him to." "I'm deeply sorry my Lord. Please excuse my interruption." "It's quite alright Charles, but I do think that you should stay to here why he wasn't working. So, Matthew, go with your explanation." "O-okay. My c-condition…I-it's called x-xeroderma p-pigmentosum. It effects m-my skin so th-that if I'm exp-posed to the sun for even a few minutes I get b-blisters and r-rashes." "I see…That's why you're so pale. It's not that you don't get enough sun; it's that you can't get sun." At this, Matthew nodded. "Alright, I'll give you a new job then. I really like you Matthew, so, starting tomorrow you're going to be my personal servant. Don't worry, all you're going to do is run my personal errands and help me with things I need done." "O-ok" "I'll tell one of the other servants to bring your new clothes up to your room. For now you can go, relax and sleep. You look very tired. You can find your room from here yes?" Matthew nodded. "Oh, before I forget, you'll get a new room closer to mine. Since you and I will get to be working close together, it would be better if our rooms were closer. Don't worry though, we'll move you tomorrow. You are now excused to go."

Matthew left the small study, going to his room. His mind was filled with all the new things that had happened. He doubted that he'd get any sleep but, as he passed an unusually uncovered window, he noticed that night was still young, giving him time to clear his mind.

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Hooray! Another chapter! :P I don't know when I'll be able to update again, I really want to write up to at least chapter five before the next one. I'll probably write chapter four tomorrow and maybe a part of chapter five. I'm not really sure. I'm glad that so many people are reading the story even though you don't leave reviews. (I know you guys are there. I was a shadow reader once too :P) Any way, thank you so much for the faves and hits ;) As always if there are any mistakes please send me a message. Oh and please review! It could be anything positive, constructive criticism, anything, just no flames please :) P.S. Even though I'm Japanese-American I want to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year, even if you don't celebrate it!


	4. In the Dark Shadow of the Full Moon

A Secret Hidden From You

Chapter 4: In the Dark Shadow of the Full Moon

_**Author's Note:**_ Hi everybody! Thank you to the people who reviewed and read the story! I'm glad that the story still interests people :P Well, I believe that the story will begin to pick up now that it's going into part two and three.

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Two months ago, Matthew was a stuttering nobody. A boy from a different country, taken to be a slave. Miraculously and luckily, he was bought by what could be considered a nice owner. Now, only after two months, he was able to befriend that master and go from being a nobody to a beloved servant that Francis trusted and cared for, but not in that loving, tender way, or so Matthew believed. With where he was now, no longer the stuttering, extremely shy boy, Matthew was genuinely grateful and happier than he had ever been.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Mr. Bonnefoy! It's eight o' clock now! It's time for your breakfast!"

Matthew knocked a few more times on Francis' bedroom door just to make sure that he heard his wake up call. Matthew then went to the kitchen, passing one of the other servants who would wait at the base of the stairs. Grabbing the plate of food that the chef left out, Matthew placed the plate at a spot on the table in the next room. He found a nice comfy chair at the table, sat down and waited for Francis. Ten minutes later Francis still had not come down and his food had gotten cold. Worried, he ran up the stairs and pounded on the bedroom door a few times. When there was no sound of movement behind the door he decided to bang on it a few more times. As he was about to hit the wood, the door was suddenly thrust open revealing a pale, tired looking Francis.

"What is it?!" Francis snapped.

"S-sir, y-your b-breakfast is r-ready."

When he finally took the time to collect himself, Francis realized that he was talking to Matthew and immediately felt bad for snapping at the boy.

"I'm sorry Matthew. I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm really tired and I tend to get moody when I'm tired. Let me just put on my robe and I'll walk down with you."

"OK. Take your time Mr. Bonnefoy."

When Francis was ready, the two walked down to the dining hall. As the other passed through the light of the luminous chandeliers, Matthew noticed how pale and lifeless Francis was. He had dark bags underneath his eyes and the ocean blue sparkle that was so familiar to Matthew was gone. The color was replaced by a washed out foggy blue. Matthew could see how pale Francis was, but as he studied the other even more, the pale color looked more and more like a the grey, dead color a corpse gets after a while… Believing that what he was seeing was just due to the bad lighting, Matthew tried to let his suspicious thoughts go.

"Maybe Mr. Bonnefoy is catching a cold. That would explain the bags and odd skin color." Matthew thought.

Sitting at the dining table, Francis slowly began to eat his now freezing breakfast. Giving up rather quickly, Francis put his fork down and turned to face Matthew.

"Matthew, can you go down into the gardens and pick for me twenty four red roses?"

Matthew nodded.

"Thank you. There's a parasol and a basket with a pair of scissors in it in the other room. When you are done, you can place your basket on this table. I'll have someone come and get them."

"OK."

"When you are done with the task, you can have the rest of the day off."

Matthew nodded happily.

"Now, Matthew, if you will, please wake me tomorrow morning at the normal time. I'm going to go back to bed."

"Alright."

Matthew watched as Francis got up and left the table. Oddly, he saw Francis go down a different corridor from the one that led back to the foyer and staircase.

"Strange…Maybe he had to do something. But…Then again…He made it seem like he was going to rest…" Matthew thought as he made his way to the back room.

When he got there, he saw the parasol and the basket on the small table by the door. He went to the parasol and picked it up. He then opened it and placed it over his head, inspecting how well it covered his body. Satisfied that it covered him well enough, Matthew picked up the basket, opened the door, and went into the garden.

Matthew decided that he would take his time to gather the red roses and explore the gardens as he went. With the umbrella offering him his much needed shade, Matthew found the first rose bush. The flowers were in bloom, even though it was only early spring, giving the green bushes splashes of color. Matthew bent down and deeply inhaled the scent of one of the roses. Taking the pair of scissors out of his basket, he cut the stems of three pristine roses, placed them into his basket, and went to find another rose bush.

By the time Matthew had eighteen roses, he had circled the whole mansion perimeter. While he searched for his last six roses, he decided to look farther out on the grounds near the gazebo and the pond. When he got there, Matthew gazed into the clear, blue waters of the pond. Fish came and warily eyed him. Some of the more adventurous ones stuck their heads out and gaped at him with their open mouths. Giggling softly to himself, he reached out a thin finger and tapped one of the fish on the head. At the contact, the fish quickly dived and hid itself. Again, Matthew giggled at the fish' antics. Suddenly, the fish scattered as a shadow appeared on the surface of the pond. Confused, Matthew turned around from where he was squatting, moved his umbrella a little and found the angry face of Lovino glaring down at him.

"You!"

He pointed a finger at Matthew and walked even closer to him. Flustered, Matthew stood up, almost dropping his parasol and leaving the basket with the roses by the pond. Grabbing the front of Matthew's suit, Lovino pulled him close to his face. By this time Matthew was shaking in fear of the other boy.

"I'm still angry with you."

"I'm sorry!" Matthew cowered.

"Really or are you just saying that?"

"I don't even know what I did wrong!" Matthew wailed, trying not to get hurt.

"Don't know! Don't know?! You ditched me two years ago when we were first brought here. I had to work all by my self in the blazing sun while you were off god knows where!"

"I'm sorry." This time Matthew's response was a heart felt apology. He wasn't thinking about anything other than trying to save himself the agony if he had stayed out in the sun that day he tried to escape.

"I guess I could forgive you. It has, after all been two months. By the way, my name is Lovino. I don't think we told each other our names when we first met."

"Oh…I'm Matthew." They sat together on the bank of the pond, relaxing and just enjoying each other's company, for a few minutes.

"Say Matthew" Lovino stated, "What have you been doing these past two months?"

"Mr. Bonnefoy changed my job since I can't be out in the sun too long. Now I work as his personal servant."

"That sounds like fun…I guess. Better than pulling weeds all day."

"Yeah…" As Matthew was beginning to fully relax, he spied the basket of roses sitting by the bank a few feet away from him. "Shoot!"

"What! What's the matter?"

"I'm supposed to get twenty four roses for Mr. Bonnefoy. I got totally sidetracked! I'm really sorry Lovino but I have to get back to work."

"Ok Matthew. By the way, if you have some free time today, do you want to hang out with the other workers tonight?"

"Sure, I have the rest of the day off later."

"Ok. Just come down to the kitchen at five."

"See you then Lovino!"

Matthew grabbed his basket, griped his parasol, and ran off towards the nearest clump of rose bushes. Unfortunately, the nearest bush was really close to the house so that meant that he had to run quite a way, all the while keeping his umbrella over his head and the already picked roses in the basket. Though he had already went around the mansion looking for flowers, he didn't pick all of them, that way the bushes would still look nice. He ran up to the nearest bush, which was conveniently close to the front door, and found six roses that looked good enough. Quickly putting them into his basket, he made his way to the front door and went to the dining hall to place the basket on the table. Satisfied with his job and weary from his time outside, Matthew made a mad dash to his room on the second floor.

Once in his room, he changed out of his clothes and grabbed his alarm clock. He set the time so that it would ring in three hours at four thirty. Looking at the clock, he realized that he had been out in the sun for two hours.

"No wonder I'm tired. I haven't been out of the house for two months." He set the clock down on the nightstand and climbed into his bed, quickly falling asleep.

When Matthew heard the persistent ringing near his head, he blindly groped for the clock, wanting to cease the loud noise. Finally finding it, he turned the annoying thing off. Sitting up in his bed, he let out a large yawn and stretched, cracking his back in the process. Matthew then got up and made his way to the dresser in his room. He opened it and looked for some casual clothes but realized that all he had were work clothes, since he was unable to go into town. After a few minutes, he decided on wearing the work clothes he had worn before taking his nap.

Leaving his room, Matthew walked down to the kitchen. As he descended the stairs, he spied Lovino leaving the corridor that led to the servants' quarters. "Lovino!" Matthew yelled catching the brunet's attention. Matthew waved and ran down the stairs.

"Hi Matt. Before we meet the others I want to tell you that I didn't tell the others that I invited you. I'll have to introduce you to everyone."

"Ok." With that said, the boys went across the foyer and into the kitchen. Lovino showed Matthew to a door he had never noticed before. He could hear voices coming through the wood and see the light through the gap between the door and the floor.

"Hey everybody!" Lovino said as he opened the door.

When Matthew walked through the door, he could feel the four pairs of eyes on him. He resisted the urge to hide his reddening face from the staring eyes. "Everyone, this is Matthew. He got the day off today so I invited him to join us in our game tonight." Matthew waved sheepishly to the other boys.

"Hi" he said in his quiet, shy voice.

"Matthew, this is Kiku," he said pointing to an equally shy looking boy. Matthew nodded to him, recognizing him from two months ago. "That older boy next to him is Yao."

"Hello aru!" He gave a small wave in Matthew's direction.

"The boy next to Yao who looks like me is my brother Feliciano."

"Hi Matthew! Do you like pasta? I like pasta! I can eat pasta everyday!" The boy had practically jumped at Matthew, startling him.

"Alright Feli, I think he gets the point! You like pasta. Please, for everyone's sanity sit down and calm yourself!"

"Ok!" Feliciano ran back to his chair and sat down, smiling and looking as if he didn't scare Matthew's soul out of his body.

"I worry about you Feli. Sometimes I think that you have the attention span of one of the squirrels I see outside. Anyway, Matthew, that's Antonio sitting next my brother." Matthew turned towards Antonio, saw him smile, and give a small wave. "So, now that we're all introduced, let's do what we came here to do, play cards!" Matthew went to the table and sat in between Antonio and Kiku while Lovino sat between his brother and the other side of Antonio. "Today we'll be playing Pope Joan."

Matthew had gotten so into the card game that time seemed to fly right by. When he looked at the clock on the wall he noticed that it was eleven thirty. "Oh wow! It's already eleven thirty."

"Dang, alright everyone, it's time to head on to bed. We have a long day tomorrow" Yao ordered. A chorus of "Awwww man"s followed the statement. Lovino gathered all the playing cards on the table, placed them into a box, and put the box into his pocket. One by one, the boys left, leaving Matthew alone with Yao in the dark room.

"Good night Yao, and thank you and the rest of the guys for all the fun tonight."

"No problem Matthew aru. Feel free to join us anytime aru. We usually play every Thursday aru."

"Ok. Thank you again." With that, Matthew left Yao alone in the kitchen.

He moved through the dark rooms to the empty and black stair case. Its glamour and shine were gone with the light that usually shown above it. As he climbed the stairs, Matthew could have sworn he saw a shadow move from the mysterious corridor he had discovered when he had found the room with the paintings. The shadow moved from the corridor, across the foyer, and towards the kitchen. Shaking his head, Matthew turned around and continued up the stairs. He tuned and went down the hall to his room. As he passed a window while going down the hall, he noticed that it was uncharacteristically uncovered; the curtains had been drawn back. The full moon shown through the window and Matthew was bathed in its light. Though the moon was beautiful, the shadows that were prevalent on the surface reminded him of the shadow that he had seen earlier. Matthew hoped that Yao had made it to his room and was alright, he had just left him there alone.

When Matthew reached his room, he quickly changed and prepared for bed. After he finished, he lay down and covered himself in his bedding. He just couldn't stop thinking about the mysterious shadow. Somehow, before he began to drift off, he convinced himself that the black thing was just a figment of his imagination. However, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't explain away the feeling of dread that hung above his head.

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Yay! Another chapter! Well, now that we lost in the first round of CIF basketball, I have a bunch of free time. I'll probably be able to update and write more chapters more frequently now :) Well stuff about the chapter...I was trying to find a card game that would be around in the century that the story takes place in and Pope Joan caught my eye. Maybe it was the fact that it has the word Pope in it... I just thought it had a cool name. Has anyone every played it? As you know, please review, criticism is always welcomed especially if some parts don't make sense. I've reread it so many times that the sentences just blend together and seem to make sense even if they don't. So review and I'll be able to fix them. Oh and before I forget, if there are any grammar mistakes drop a review. I'm really bad at grammar so grammar review is greatly appreciated. Ok, I'm done rambling.


	5. Questions Without Answers

A Secret Hidden From You

Chapter 5: Questions Without Answers

"Ring! Ring! Ring! Ri~"

"Ughh…" Matthew groggily groped around for his ringing clock. Finding it, he turned it off, rolled off his bed, and sleepily wandered to his dresser, which was located on the other side of the room. He took from the drawers his standard uniform: black dress pants, a white dress shirt, a black vest, and black socks. His shoes, black as well, rested neatly next to his door. He quickly changed out of his sleeping wear and put on his uniform and shoes and made his way out of his sanctuary. He traveled down the staircase and noticed that Yao wasn't in his usual spot at the bottom of the stairs.

Everyday, when Matthew would go and get Francis' breakfast, he would see Yao. He wouldn't talk to the Asian man or make eye contact but Matthew knew that he could count on Yao to be in his spot every morning waiting for his job for the day.

"Strange…He's usually here. He probably had some other job to do today," Matthew thought as he finished walking down the stairs and towards the kitchen.

As he was opening the heavy kitchen doors, he heard some footsteps coming up behind him. Matthew turned around quickly, startling Kiku in the process.

"Oh! Hello Kiku! I didn't know that you'd be up at this hour. Normally the head chef is down here already making breakfast."

"Yes, that's usually how it goes, but today the he sent Charles a message saying that he was sick and couldn't come in. Charles then made me do the head chef's job because he didn't think that Feliciano was responsible enough."

After Kiku finished his explanation, he and Matthew went inside the fairly large kitchen. He got busy making breakfast for Mr. Bonnefoy, sticking some eggs and a piece of ham on a plate. Kiku then made a small dish of toast and a little tray of jam, following up with producing a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. He stuck all of the breakfast items onto a wide silver platter. Matthew watched in awe as the man in front of him busily worked.

Once Kiku was through with his cooking, he handed the tray carefully to Matthew, not wanting to spill the juice or drop the food. The other boy gently took the semi heavy carrier of food.

"Thank you Kiku! You did such a wonderful job." Matthew said to the smaller of the two Asian boys. "Oh! Kiku," Matthew suddenly remembered, "Have you seen Yao today or recently?

The other boy looked thoughtful, wracking his mind for any slight memories of seeing Yao earlier that morning.

"No, I haven't." He finally said after a few minutes. "If I recall, I believe that you were the last one to see him. I left last night shortly before you two did and I remember that you and Yao were the last ones in the room. You were probably the last person to have seen him as of yesterday. Is there a reason you asked?"

"Oh, it's nothing. I just didn't see him at his usual spot this morning."

"Hmm…that is strange. If it helps at all, our rooms are right next to each other's and I don't recall he ever going into his room. I know because when his door opens, it makes this really loud squeaking sound. Last night however, I didn't hear the squeak."

"That certainly is strange…well, thank you for the information Kiku. It was really helpful and thanks a lot for making breakfast too!" Waving goodbye to the other boy, Matthew left the kitchen pondering to himself. He had wanted answers but all he got were more questions.

With the tray in his hands, Matthew made his way carefully up to Francis' room, not wanting to spill the liquids all over the tray or on the carpet. He stopped by the large golden doors that signified the correct room that he was looking for. With the tray balanced in one hand, he used his free hand to knock politely on the door.

"Mr. Bonnefoy!" He called out, "Mr. Bonnefoy! I have you breakfast!"

Just as he was about to knock again, the door was suddenly opened, startling Matthew into almost losing his balance.

"Good morning Matthew," Francis said cheerfully, smiling at him.

"Good morning Mr.…Bonnefoy?"

Matthew had dropped his gaze as he was trying to keep the tray from wobbling when he had lost his balance. Now that he was balanced, he looked up at Francis and got one of the biggest surprises in his life.

Matthew was shocked. Wasn't it just the other day that Francis was pale and sickly? A he continued to study him, Matthew noticed that the other's skin was healthy and radiant. His eyes had regained their sparkle, like two sapphires that had been recently shined. In a way, Matthew was a little creeped out. How could he have recovered so quickly? His face must have shown some sort of discomfort or his voice had given it away because Francis' happy face soon turned into one of worry.

"What's wrong Matthew? Is something bothering you?"

"Wha?" Matthew snapped back into focus and shook his head no. "No! Nothing's wrong! Nothing at all…"

"Ok then…Oh! Is that breakfast?" He said as he spied the tray. "Here, let's go inside and eat." Francis took the tray from Matthew and ushered him into his room. Matthew meanwhile, was still dazed and was still trying to figure out what had happened to Francis.

Francis' room was quite large. It contained its own bathroom, a large closet, a four poster bed, a couple of book shelves, a desk, and a small table with a semi fancy chess set on it. Francis had taken the tray to the bed and began splitting the food into two equal sections. Matthew, on the other hand, had remained by the door where Francis left him.

"How could it be?" Matthew thought to himself, "He was so sickly looking yesterday. Nobody could recover that fast…could they? Maybe I missed something yesterday. He did sleep a lot…yeah that's it. It was all the sleep he got."

Francis had finished dividing up the food and had turned to call Matthew over but when he saw what the boy was doing, he stopped and watched him. Unaware of his surroundings, Matthew was making faces as he talked quietly to himself. If it was any other boy, servant, or man, Francis would have thought that they were crazy. Matthew, however, looked absolutely adorable and Francis couldn't help but watch as expressions flew across the boy's face.

At first the boy looked confused and thoughtful. His brow was turned down as if he was thinking over a large problem whose solution evaded him. Then suddenly, as he was mumbling to himself, his darkened face and cloudy eyes all of a sudden got brighter. His brow was no longer creased and he smiled to himself, nodding his head as if he came to the solution he was looking for.

When Matthew stopped making faces, Francis took this as a chance to walk up to him.

"Matthew," he said, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder, startling the boy back into reality. "Here, we can share my breakfast. I already split it into two parts."

"Oh no! I can't do that! It's yours. I shouldn't be eating your food Mr. Bonnefoy." The boy smiled sincerely and put his hands up in front of himself.

"You haven't eaten anything since yesterday's breakfast Matthew."

"Th-that's not true! I had a small lunch…At least I think I did."

"It doesn't matter, Matthew. The point that I'm trying to make is that you're probably hungry. Plus it's not good to skip on meals."

"I am not skipping on meals! I'm not hungry eith-"

GRROOOOWWWLLLL

When his sentence was cut short, Matthew immediately looked down at his stomach and felt his face turn red in embarrassment.

"HA HA HA HA HA!" Francis laughed out loud. "See, I told you that you were hungry. Here, like I said, I already split the food. Do you want the spoon or the fork?" He asked as he held up the silver objects in front of Matthew.

"You can have the fork Mr. Bonnefoy," Matthew said not looking up at him, still a little embarrassed.

The two walked over to the bed and sat down, Matthew more on the corner of the bed than Francis.

"Matthew, I can't share with you if you sit so far away. Come closer."

"Ok Mr. Bonnefoy." He scooted a little bit closer but not that mutch

"And another thing. Stop calling me 'Mr. Bonnefoy.' It makes me feel old. Just call me Francis ok?"

"Ok Mr. Bo-Francis."

"Ehh…At least it's a start. Here's your spoon." He said as he handed Matthew the utensil.

"Thank you Mr. Francis." He replied taking it in his smaller, thinner hand.

"Sigh…We'll get there eventually."

The two sat together on the spacious bed, enjoying the food and each other's company. Once everything was eaten, Francis got up and walked to his desk. He pulled open a drawer and started to rummage around in it, looking for something. Matthew stared at the other man, curious to know what he was looking for.

"Aha! Here it is!" Francis exclaimed after some time. In his hand rested what looked like a little pouch and an envelope. He then beckoned for the boy to come over to him.

"Matthew, can you come over here for a moment?"

The boy hopped off the bed and walked towards Francis.

"Here, hold this." He handed the pouch and envelope over to the other set of hands.

When Matthew had the items safely in his grasp, he started to examine them. He noticed that the pouch wasn't a pouch at all but a small coin purse. There was nothing in it of course, at least not yet. The envelope contained something in it however, since it was a little bit heavier than the purse but not by much.

Francis then turned towards the boy after he was finished looking through the things in his desk. He tapped Matthew on the shoulder to get the boy's attention. When Matthew was looking at him, Francis started to give him instructions.

"Since you've been doing such a good job Matthew, I'm going to let you go into town today with Charles. That way you'll be able to learn about which shops are which so that when I send you out to pick things up for me, you'll know where to go."

"And you'll be able to see a few other things besides the castle. You'll become more special than the other servants here who have never seen anything outside these walls." Francis added silently in his head, not wanting Matthew to hear his private thoughts.

Matthew, meanwhile, was happy at the thought that he'll be able to get out of the prison the castle had become. He had a small smile on his face and was lost, once again, in his thoughts of finally being able to get out, even if it was only for a little while.

Francis then asked Matthew for the envelope he had handed to the boy with the small coin purse. The boy, awoken from his thoughts by the other's voice, handed over the envelope. Francis then pulled out a couple of bills from the envelope and a few coins that he had in his pocket.

"Here," He handed the money over to Matthew, who put the money into the purse. "This should be enough for you and Charles to have lunch in town. I told him to show you all the shops as well as the ones that I specifically go to. Make sure to pay attention to those. You'll be going back to them a lot."

"Ok. Thank you…Francis." He said, giving the older man one of his brightest smiles.

"Don't worry about it Matthew. Oh and by the way, you're supposed to meet Charles down there by the front door in about five minutes."

"What!" Matthew screamed as his face turned into one of horror and he could feel the heat radiating from his head as he quickly dashed out of the door to meet Charles.

Every time that Matthew became flustered, Francis couldn't help but think that the boy looked adorable. The way he got embarrassed by every little thing and his face would light up made Francis want to swoop in and embrace the boy, giving him kiss after kiss to make the embarrassment disappear. Francis chuckled softly to himself.

"That would probably make him blush even more." He took a deep breath and sighed. "Matthew, Matthew, Matthew. What am I supposed to do with you? You'll probably end up being the death of me" Francis said as he looked towards the door the boy had run out of.

* * *

**I'm so sorry that this took forever to update! I've been working on and finishing my other story, **_The Boy with the Purple Eyes_**. If you haven't read it, you should and give me some helpful reviews ;D Anyway, I'm really sorry if some of the things in this chapter are wrong, like the formatting and such. I'm so used to the other story's format and since that it was a little different, it might have carried over...Well, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and please drop a review if you think anything is wrong or could be changed. :D**


	6. SWCHBSB

A Secret Hidden From You

Chapter 6: Seeing What Couldn't Have Been Seen Before

**What's this? A new chapter? Why yes it is! :D So I had this laying around in the story's folder and I just rediscovered it. I'm pretty sure I fixed out all the mistakes but if you see any, please, don't hesitate to tell me.**

**Oh yeah! Please check out my new story, _Wherever You Will Go_. I'm going to be trying something new with the format so I'll need advice and such. The changes to the format will probably be there starting with chapter 3 (which is already written :D)**

**Anyway, on with the chapter!  
**

* * *

Once Matthew had heard that he was supposed to meet Charles in five minutes, he panicked. He dashed out of the room so fast that the windows and doors that he ran by looked like smudges on the dark walls of the house. By the time he reached the front door, he realized that Charles wasn't even there.

"Great," he thought to himself, "Charles isn't even here. I should have said goodbye to Mr. B-Francis. Why is he even letting me call him by his first name anyway? I'm just a servant, still technically a slave. I don't even deserve to be that close to him…do I?"

"Matthew!"

At the sound of his name, Matthew whipped around trying to locate the source of the voice that called his name. He found Charles standing next to the passage that led to the kitchen and dining hall.

"It's good to see that you're early Matthew. Francis told me to take you into town to show you all of the shops and places that you'll need to be familiar with. Come, it's an hour's walk. Normally we'd go by carriage but since I have to show you everything, I can't take the carriage back."

As the two walked towards the front door, Matthew saw that his parasol was placed conveniently in the umbrella holder that was close to the door. He grabbed it as Charles opened the door and opened it as the two walked out to start their long journey to town.

When Matthew and Charles had left the complex, it had been nine o'clock. The hour that it took for them to reach town allowed Matthew the time to remember the suspicious events of the day before and this morning. He went over all the things in his head, the black shadow, Yao disappearing, Francis being ill one day and healthy the next, and his own ill feelings that he had been getting through the events. With so many questions floating around his head, and no answers in sight, Matthew decided to let time be his greatest ally in reaching a conclusion regarding everything. With his mind cleared, he decided to focus his attention to something better.

For awhile now, Matthew had been curious to know more about his master. Of course, he could just go and ask Francis, but he was too shy to ask something so personal. Plus, he was only a servant and servants weren't supposed to know things like that.

"I know," he thought to himself, "I'll just ask people around town. They're sure to know about his family and history, I mean the castle looks so old. It's probably been there for at least a century."

"Matthew?"

"Huh!...Wha!"

"Where here."

Matthew looked up from where he was staring at the dirt.

"How long have I been staring at the ground?" He asked inside his mind.

The little town was moderately busy. People were running from store to store. At the dock, large supply ships carrying goods unloaded their products for people to buy.

"The first store we're going to is Łukasiewicz's."

"Who's that? I've don't even think I can pronounce that…"

"For your question of who, he's the guy that Francis buys all of his clothes from. He has impeccable fashion sense, which is the main reason why Francis loves buying outfits only from him. Anyway, he instructed me get you measured for new garments different from your normal attire."

"Oh…"

As the two walked to Łukasiewicz's, they passed a corridor that led to a sinister looking shop. Intrigued, Matthew stopped and stared down the alley at the shop.

"What are you doing?" A voice asked, making Matthew jump a little as he was not expecting the surprise of a voice in his ear. Startled, he turned around and came face to face Charles . After regaining his breath, Matthew turned and looked back at the store in the shadows.

"Charles…What's that store over there?" He pointed to the lonely shop shroud in darkness.

Charles followed the finger and looked into the alley at the shop. When he saw what the boy was curious about he immediately felt a subtle fear shiver up his spine. He shook his head a little and let the fear dissipate. He turned and looked at Matthew, no trace of alarm was evident on his face.

"That's a bogus shop Matthew. You don't need to worry about it. Not at all."

"Oh…but what _**is**_ it exactly?"

"Persistent aren't you? Fine, it's a place for people who believe that mythical beasts are real. Things like werewolves and vampires and other related things. The people who work there go and get images of these beasts and people who are suspected of being unworldly and post them. Other people go there to look at the pictures so they can go and kill those animals."

"So basically, those people who believe in mystical creatures exist and they want to kill them?"

"Simply put, yes."

"But why? I thought mythical creatures didn't exist."

"You're right Matthew, they don't exist."

"Doesn't that mean that the agency is killing innocent people?"

"Yes Matthew, you're absolutely correct. But, you have to realize, we live in a time where people will believe anything you say, as long as you have sufficient evidence to back up your claim. Plus, the police aren't strong enough to stop the massive amounts of people who work and support the hunting. They believe that the agency is protecting the town against the evil that is the vampire and the werewolf. Those two creatures are what the agency specializes in by the way."

"Oh…" Matthew breathed out as turned his head away from the alley and left with Charles.

The pair continued their walk down the street towards a small, bright looking shop. When they reached the doorway of the happy looking building, Matthew looked up from where he stood and saw a large wooden sign that simply said "Łukasiewicz's." Quickly noticing that Charles was holding the door open for him, Matthew quickly slipped inside while his companion followed.

Matthew gazed in wonder at the walls of the boutique. He had never seen so many articles of clothing before. There were so many types, from nice looking shirts to pants, to even different types of hats and accessories. A short, blonde man came running over towards the pair a little after they had walked inside.

"Charles! It's like, so good to see you again!"

"Hello Felix. It has been a while since I dropped in the last time."

"Ah…So like, who's the new guy?" Felix pointed a slender finger in Matthew's direction.

"Felix, this is Matthew." He introduced. "And Matthew, this is Felix. We buy all of our clothing articles from him."

"Hi" Matthew shyly whispered in his quiet voice to Felix.

"Is he, like, a newbie or something? I've never seen him before."

"This is actually Matthew's first time out of the castle's grounds since he arrived here."

"Ohhhh! So that's why I don't recall, like, ever seeing you!"

"Y-yeah."

"Anyways, like, what can I help you with today gentlemen? Does Francis need something new?"

"No, no. Francis didn't want anything new for himself but, he did want Matthew here to have something other than what's standardized for his job. Something special just for him."

"Hmmm…Ok, anything specific that Francis wants?"

"Let's see," Charles said as he pulled out a piece of parchment. "He wants Matthew to have nice clothes, pants, shirts, jackets, so that when the two go on outings, Matthew won't look too much like a servant."

'Ok, I have, like, an idea of what I'm going to do. Can you, like, come with me, Matthew?"

Felix started walking to the back of the store as Matthew followed shortly behind.

"Ok, so like, step here." The shorter blonde instructed once Matthew had caught up with him. Matthew noticed that the tailor was pointing to a podium, so he followed the instructions and climbed up onto the platform. As he stood upon the dais, Matthew noticed that Felix had run off to get a stool for himself to stand on. Once the flamboyant man was back, he started to take the measurements needed for Matthew's new clothes.

"M-Mr. Łukasiewicz," Matthew managed to stutter out, not used to being around new people yet, "c-can you tell me a little bit about M-Mr. Bonnefoy."

"Like what exactly?"

"Umm…I don't k-know. I guess anything that you might know."

"Matthew, that is your name right?" Matthew nodded a reply. "I've only, like, been in this town for, like, about oh I don't know, five years. What I've found about Francis is, like, what everybody else in this town know. He's rich, owns the castle, and throws, like, the best parties in town. He also, like, doesn't get out too much."

"Oh. So if I were to ask other people, they would tell me the same things?"

"Pretty much. But, like, if you keep asking, somebody may know something more. Anyway, I'm done with your measurements so, like, we can go back to the front."

Matthew stepped down from the podium and rejoined Felix as the two went and met back with Charles in the front of the store. When they got there, the other man was busy examining some fine looking slacks.

"Charles!" Matthew called, successfully getting the other's attention. The older servant walked from where he was and met up with the other two.

"So, like, clothes will be done in about a week. I'll send up Toris with them when we're done."

"That sounds good. Well Felix it was nice seeing you and your shop but Matthew and I must be going. There's much more that he has to see and as you know, time stops for no one."

"Alright. So, like, see you soon. And Matthew, it was, like, so good to meet you."

Matthew blushed sheepishly and nodded his head in agreement. The two servants waved good bye and left the shop, taking a right once they were out of the door.

It was eleven o'clock when Charles and Matthew had left Łukasiewicz's and the two had cleared all of the stores that Matthew had to know. There was the post office, the flea market area, the best places to buy produce, to buy meats, the best places to find fish, furniture, and books, and all of the other important buildings such as the banks and hardware stores. The one store however, that caught the most of Matthew's attention was the toy store. When he and Charles had walked by, something in the window caught the younger one's eye. He stopped and gazed into the window, eyes lingering on a stuffed, white bear displayed proudly for all to see. Charles had noticed that his companion had stopped so he backtracked to where his partner was standing.

"Matthew, do you want the bear?" He asked. He had never seen the boy look at something with such longing. Matthew turned his head away from the window, towards where the two were heading.

"Yes! Yes I want the bear!" He screamed in his head. he had never seen such a lovely, plush looking bear in his life. Oh, how he longed to touch that bear in the window. To hold it in his hands and feel the soft fur on his arms. "No! No!" Screamed a small but powerful voice in his head. "You're just a servant." It whispered maliciously. "Just a servant and nothing more. You don't deserve that bear servant boy."

"No, I…I don't want it." He slumped his shoulders a little and began walking in the direction they had been traveling.

"Hmmm…" Charles wondered. "He did say to buy anything that Matthew wanted…"

With that he quickly ran into the store before Matthew could notice. Three minutes later, he was back out and trying to find his younger charge. Lucky for him, the boy had slowly, aimlessly wandered up the street, following the sidewalk as it led him.

"Matthew! Matthew!" He yelled causing the boy to stop and turn around towards the sound of his voice. "Wait up!"

Once the two were reunited, Charles led them to a nice outdoor café, where the two ate lunch together. When Charles had excused himself for a moment from the table, Matthew sat and pondered about his day so far. Overall, he thought, he had had a nice time. He got to see the town and its people, as well as question them about his master, only when Charles wasn't looking of course. He had learned almost nothing new to add to what Felix had told him earlier that day. From what he figured out was that Francis threw good parties, liked clothes, and didn't come out too much. From some of the older people though, Matthew heard rumors of how his master seemed like he never aged and that they had seen Francis decade after decade looking the same, young and refreshing.

"They must be getting him confused with some other people. There's no way a person can't age." Matthew told himself.

As he sat there alone, Charles still hadn't returned, Matthew started to think about that white bear. It looked so soft and nice. He wished that he had his own money that he could spent on that luxurious bear. As a child, he had nothing. His family barely had enough money to scrape up a living so there was nothing to be spent on nice things such as toys. When he saw the bear he knew that he wanted it. Just once in his life he would like to have something he so desperately wanted.

As Matthew was lost in his daydream about his bear, Charles returned to the table. He noticed Matthew gazing off, a faraway look in his eyes. He reached out and lightly grabbed the boy on the shoulder, shaking him a little and snapping him out of his daze.

"Matthew, there's one more place that we have to go. Before we left, Francis told me that he wanted a certain book from the library. We have to stop there before we return home."

The outside of the library was drab and worn down looking and Matthew had questioned the reason behind why his master wanted a book from the place. His mind, however, was changed once Charles led him into the rather large building. Matthew had never seen a place more elegant and sophisticated, not counting the castle which he called home. The walls of the library were covered in red, velvety fabric that was soft underneath his fingers. As he followed Charles around the floor, he saw rows and rows of countless books on shelves attached to the walls. There were also bookcases everywhere he looked. He was so absorbed in his amazement that Matthew failed to notice that Charles had stopped suddenly. Bumping into his back, Matthew apologized to his companion and the two walked over to where rows of tables had been set up for people who wanted to read.

"Matthew, feel free to explore the library. There are two floors and countless numbers of books. Finding the exact novel that Mr. Bonnefoy may take some time so I suggest you go and get familiar with your surroundings. Meet me here in about an hour. Hopefully I'll have what he wants and we can go home." Charles then went in search of the nearest person who could help him.

"Hmm…anywhere I choose…"

There were so many places he could go, so many unknown areas filled with information that he could fill his mind with.

"I know!" Matthew smiled as the thought came to him. It was perfect, why hadn't he thought of it before? "I'll just look for a book about the history of the town! That way, I can learn about my new home and see if there is any information about Francis' family!"

Excited, he found the closest person who could help him and found his way to the history section of the library. He scanned the shelves with a purpose, looking for the oldest book on the history of the town he could find. When his finger hit a semi-large, browning book, Matthew let out a quiet gasp of happiness. He grabbed the book and held it securely in his arms, all the while walking as fast as he could back to the place he was supposed to meet Charles at.

Once there at the tables, Matthew set the hardback down and opened it to the back, praying that an index would be there. When he saw what he was looking for, he let out a whispered "yes!" and quickly searched in the 'B' section. To his amazement, the one word he was looking for was there in tiny black letters. _Bonnefoy_. B-O-N-N-E-F-O-Y. Bonne-foy. Page 69-71. 69. 71. 69-71.

Matthew couldn't believe it. He read it over and over just to make sure it was the correct name. He felt his eyes widen and mouth drop just a little. When he realized that he should be looking at the pages and not just ogling the name, Matthew felt his face flush and he directed his attention to the correct place.

He rapidly flipped to where the pages were supposed to be located and was greeted with a terrible surprise. Instead of pages 69 -71, Matthew saw only pages 68 and 72, the space between the two pages jagged and torn. Someone had ripped out the information about his master's family that he could find. Disappointment rippled through his body as Matthew closed the book and laid his head on top of the cover. He wondered how much time he had wasted on his fruitful escapade and if he still had some left to see if maybe some other book had anything to offer. Suddenly, an idea hit him and he bolted up off of the cover of the tome. He opened the cover and scanned the beginning pages.

"Where are you? Where are you?" He repeated in his mind, determined to fond what he was looking for.

"Aha!" He yelled triumphantly, only to be shushed by some of the other people in the general vicinity of the reading tables.

Embarrassed because of his outburst, Matthew hid his rapidly heating face within the confines of his book and marveled at what he had found. Maybe his little exploit wasn't so wasted after all…

He looked at the small numbers on the page and smiled. _Copyright 1793. _1793. Exactly one hundred years from the current one. There was one thing new he learned today.

"One hundred years they've been in the town and nobody could tell me a thing."

"Matthew are you ready to go?" A hand clamped down on his shoulder, startling him out of his daze. He turned around and was met with the familiar face of Charles, who currently had a book in his hands.

"The Count of Monte Cristo?" He read from the spine of the book.

"Yes, Mr. Bonnefoy expressed that he wished to read it. He said that the book is quite popular in the larger cities and that he wanted me to borrow it when we went into town. If you're finished, Matthew, we should get going. It'll be dark by the time we get back to the mansion."

"O-ok. Let me just put this book aw-"

"I'm sure it's fine Matthew. Just leave it here. One of the helpers will put it away for you. We must leave while there is still sun outside."

Charles proceeded to usher Matthew out of the library. He gave the younger one some time to reopen his parasol and the two proceeded the long journey home.

One hour and an extremely tiring walk home, the two reached the familiar and comforting mansion. Matthew practically ran to the front door, flung it open and collapsed onto the floor of the foyer. He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes, glad that he was finally inside and home. The light sound of laughter floated to his ears causing Matthew to open his eyes. His vision was filled with the bright sparkle of Francis' blue eyes and flawless face.

"It looks as if you ran a few miles Matthew."

"M-Mr. Bonnefoy!" The boy stuttered as he shot up from where he was laying to give the other a respectful bow.

"Now Matthew, remember what we were discussing before you left? And to think that you were doing so well too."

"Oh, r-right. Sorry F-Francis." Matthew tried to resist looking the other in the eyes.

"Well, did you and Charles have a good time?"

"Yes, yes we did. We found all the places, ordered the clothes and managed to visit the library."

"Ahh good! Good! You two did everything I asked for. Oh, by the way Matthew, there's something here for you."

"What? I-I didn't buy anything though!"

"It's alright. I knew that you would want something from town even though you wouldn't voice it out so I had Charles look for something that would make you a little happier. Stay here I'll go get it."

Francis walked towards the direction of the dining room and the kitchen. Matthew watched him leave and wondered what Charles could have gotten him. A few minutes later, Francis returned with a white box with a bright red ribbon around it.

"Here," Francis said as he handed the box to Matthew. "I don't know what's in it, although the man I've seen working at the toy shop was the one who delivered it."

At the words "toy" and "shop" Matthew began to get excited. His mind wandered to the images he stored of the white bear he had seen earlier today. He lightly grasped the tail end of the ribbon and pulled it slowly. Once the ribbon was off, Matthew took off the lid of the box and peered into it. There, inside, was the white bear. He gasped and almost dropped the box. Using one hand, he took out the bear, feeling the soft, plush fur in his hand.

"Here, I'll take that," Francis said as he took the box from Matthew's hands.

Seeing that his other hand was free, Matthew held the bear and hugged it close to his chest. Out of sheer happiness, he turned to his master and gave him a hug.

"Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Francis was shocked. He wasn't expecting a hug or a happy, grinning boy burying his head into his chest. He could feel a strange feeling welling up deep within himself that he had never felt before.

"It's fine Matthew! No problem at all." He smiled and watched as the younger twirled around the front entry way with the bear swinging in his hands. Francis had never seen the boy so happy, never before. He gazed as Matthew fell to the floor, dizzy and worn out from his journey to town and the spinning.

"Matthew!" He called out. "If you want, you can go to bed now. It's pretty late and I'm sure you're tired. How does that sound?"

The other boy nodded and rapidly began climbing the stairs towards his room, unaware of his master's eyes following his every move. He was just too happy about his new bear.

Francis watched as Matthew climbed the stairs, the light from the wall bouncing off his hair, causing him to glow and shimmer. It was truly a beautiful sight. He could feel that mysterious bubbling in his abdomen growing again. It was such a warm feeling that Francis almost attributed it to being the start of a fever. Dismissing it as nothing, he began his own climb up the stairs to his own room.


	7. The Library and the Mysterious Full Moon

A Secret Hidden From You

Chapter 7: The Library and the Mysterious Full Moon

It was dawn as the birds outside chirped and the insects began to beat their wings. The morning sunlight filtered through the window, as the drapes were already pulled back and tied, revealing a sparkling, clear glass window. Matthew woke with a start as a small burning sensation surged through his body as the unfiltered and unblocked sun cast its rays upon his exposed arms and face.

"Awaaaa!"

He jumped out of bed, frantically running to the window. Grabbing the drapes without thought, he consequentially exposed more of his pale skin to the burning rays, as he pulled the hangings closed. He moaned, mostly from tiredness but a little from the pain of the sun hitting his flesh, as he collapsed onto his bed, letting out a cry as his semi-singed stomach hit the sheets. As he lay there, Matthew groped around, fingers searching for the soft fur of his new bear, now christened Kumajirou. Drawing the plush bear closer to his stinging chest, Matthew snuggled into the sheets, feeling somewhat better.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

A heavy fist pounded on his door, breaking the boy out of his half conscious state of mind. He was too tired to open his eyes so Matthew remained quiet, listening to the person on the other side of his door.

"Matthew? I heard you shout. Are you alright?"

Francis' light voice filtered through the door causing the younger to open his sleepy eyes, after all, it was Francis talking to him, the one who gave him such a nice room, position and treated him with respect.

"Yes, I'm fine. I…It's nothing."

"Alright then, but when you're ready I have something to show you."

"O-ok Francis."

As soon as he heard the echo of Francis' steps moving farther and farther down the hall, Matthew rolled onto his back. He checked his stomach and chest for any visible damage other than the occasional small blister. Why did he fall asleep without a shirt anyway? Oh yeah…He was way too excited about getting his new bear. He wanted to feel the fur on as much of his skin as he could (without being fully naked of course) as he had never felt something so soft in his life.

Slowly, he rolled off his bed and made his way to the dresser, pulling out his uniform. Black pants were the first to go on, followed by the white shirt, black dress jacket, and finally the white socks and black shoes. After he was fully clad, Matthew checked himself out in the mirror, making sure everything looked presentable, that_ he_, himself, looked presentable.

Once he was satisfied, the servant boy walked out of the room in the direction that Francis went when he came by to check on him, which was the main hallway to the grand entrance. Not in a serious rush, Matthew took his time, enjoying the walk and the peace and quiet that the morning brought with it. When he reached the large staircase in the grand entrance, he was surprised to see Francis there, smiling at him and waiting patiently at the bottom, resting against the large wooden handrail of the stairs. To his surprise, Francis ran up to him, grabbing his hand and quickly led him away from which he, Matthew, was going.

"Francis!" He called out as politely as he could since he did not want to yell. After all he was only a servant and a servant never yelled at their masters. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see, you'll see. I'm sure you'll love it! You'll be the only servant ever to have access to the place so you should be thrilled!"

Matthew continued to stumble along after his master, confused at what he was saying. Questions filled his mind and Matthew soon became oblivious to his surroundings. Love what? First to see something of Francis'? What could this mysterious thing be?

Suddenly, Francis stopped, causing Matthew, who had tuned out just about everything, to run head on into his back.

"Ouch…"

The younger of the two men reached up and rubbed his nose, displacing the pain that surged from the spot. Curious as to why they stopped, Matthew peeked over Francis' shoulder, gasping slightly at what stood before them.

Two solid wooden doors, heavy and tastefully decorated with small carvings along the sides and within the doors themselves, towered over the two. Matthew could feel his mouth hanging open as he had never seen anything so intimidating yet oddly calming in his life. He could feel the curiosity rising within his body as he began to wonder what could be hidden behind those weighty doors. Ever so slowly, he timidly stepped out from behind Francis and closer to the doors to get a better look.

Francis watched the boy from the corner of his eye. He observed the fleeting emotions that danced upon the youthful face as Matthew's natural curiosity took control of his actions. First the surprise, then the pain, then the interest of what lied in front of them. He loved it, the little show that Matthew put on, unaware that he was actually doing it.

"Matthew," He called out, laughing a little to himself as the boy whipped his head around, obviously startled and surprised that he had actually surpassed Francis just to get a better look at a door. A faint red blush dusted his cheeks as well from embarrassment from his actions.

"Wouldn't it be better to be more intrigued as to what's behind the door rather than waste it away on the doors themselves?"

The boy shyly looked away; the small blush had intensified into a slightly brighter one, and nodded his head. Francis couldn't help but smile.

"Alright, come on then, we'll look inside. Your special surprise is in there anyway."

Matthew stood to the side to let Francis by. The older blonde grabbed the large wooden handles and pulled. Amazingly, the doors slid easily open, revealing a wondrous chandelier lit room. Matthew couldn't hold his amazement in any longer. He gasped loudly at the sight, quickly covering his mouth soon after to hide his embarrassment.

"Oh my god Francis! It's…it's beautiful!"

Matthew had never seen so many books in his life. Sure he had learned to read and had books before he was forced from his home in the new world, but this, this was something that dwarfed even the largest book collection he had ever seen. There were walls upon walls of books, so many that Matthew believed that had he the chance, he would never be able to finish reading all of them in his life.

"Are you going to fawn over them all day from the doorway, Matthew? Perhaps you should actually come inside."

The boy timidly took a few steps into the great room so that he could stand by Francis once again. He tried to keep his excitement levels down but was failing miserably. He so badly wanted to run within the room and between the towering shelves, finding lost treasures inside the vast pages that lay out before him.

Francis studied the boy beside him, how the light from the massive chandeliers hanging from the ceiling danced upon his face, revealing his excitement over the books. How his body twitched slightly, yearning to discover the vast worlds and adventures that awaited him with every turn of the page. Francis felt bad for breaking the poor boy out of his own world but he must or Matthew may never know what gift he was about to receive.

"I know you're dying to go and read the books, Matthew."

"What?" He jumped a little, startled by Francis' smooth voice addressing him.

"Matthew, I'm giving you full access to this library from now on. You can come in here whenever you please, as long as it doesn't interfere with your duties."

"Bu-but Francis! I'm nothing more than a servant! I'm not worthy of such a nice gift or any of them, actually! Why are you doing this?"

"Do I need a reason to give you something? I'm the master of this house and if I want to give you something I think that I should be able to."

"I guess…But why only me?"

"Why not you?"

Stunned, Matthew quickly shut his mouth, as he had no comeback. He looked at the floor, feeling unworthy and a little jittery inside. Sure he wanted to run off and read the books presented to him but still, he questioned Francis' motives as to why.

"I guess I can accept this gift." He thought in his head. "And besides, I can use the books to resume my search as to who he is."

"Now then Matthew, you can resume the chores you have today. I'll leave the spare key to the library in your room so when you have some free time you can come inside."

Matthew nodded and bowed as he exited the magnificent library heading back down the stairs to do his duties for the day.

It had been two months since Matthew first gained access to the library and in those few months he had managed to find nothing, nada, zip, about Francis and his family, though on a side note he did manage to find a couple good books that he really enjoyed.

Matthew hastily walked through the main entrance, having just come down the grand staircase, and into the kitchen. Pushing the large wooden doors open, he greeted Kiku and Feliciano with a smile and a small wave of his hand. Spying a tray placed on the counter nearest the door, the servant boy went to pick it up.

"Is this Master Bonnefoy's dinner for today?"

"Yep yep! I made him pasta! Lots and lots of pasta!"

"I'm sure he'll love it Feliciano…" Matthew replied to the childish cook, the smile on his face wavering just a bit. How could someone love pasta that much? The boy made it every chance he got, not to mention try and make it for every meal.

"Well, I'll see you guys later then."

Grabbing the tray with both hands, Matthew lifted it up and made his way back up the grand staircase to Francis' room, hoping that he wouldn't spill anything as he climbed the many red carpeted stairs.

Matthew, to say the least, was worried about Francis. He had only seen him once in the course of three days, including today, and that had only been by chance. The boy shook a little, remembering the state that his master was in.

He had been walking back from the library two days ago, the first day Francis had "disappeared" so to speak, when he caught glimpse of someone staring at the almost full moon in a spare barren room. Quickly concealing himself behind the wall, Matthew peaked into the almost empty space and observed the sophisticated looking man. He looked exactly like Francis. Long golden hair, the right height, the elegance that filled the room and air, but something was off. Something…but what? Matthew couldn't quite put his finger on it.

As the man turned around to face him, Matthew had to hold back a gasp. His skin! His skin was the color of bone, a pure white, paler than Francis and even himself. The man's face was sunken in, giving off a rather sickly image. Rapidly, Matthew hid back behind the wall, completely concealing himself once more. He brought a slender hand up to his chest and held it there. His heart beat swiftly underneath his hand, as the thought of being discovered frightened him to his very core.

Once the thumping of his heart was normal again, Matthew looked back behind the wall, to the room with the window. Letting out a gasp, he brought a hand to his mouth. The man was gone! But how? If he was to leave the room he would have passed by and discovered him. The only way out was through the window and Matthew hadn't heard anything, much less the sound of someone jumping out the window. Maybe…maybe his mind had played a trick on him, after all, he did spend about nine hours in the library and was extremely tired.

No. He could never mistake those eyes. Those deep blue eyes that pierced his soul. Matthew knew deep down into his heart that that man was in fact Francis Bonnefoy. But…but what had happened to him?...

Matthew arrived at the door to Francis' room. Daintily, he placed the try down on to the table that was located conveniently outside of the room. He lightly pounded on the door hoping that Francis would answer. No luck. Knowing that he was at a loss, Matthew left the tray by the door, hoping that his master would come out to eat. At this point he didn't care what it was, just that Francis would eat something…

With nothing left to do and it only being about six p.m., Matthew headed to the library, catching a glimpse of the rising moon, now full against the dark night sky out of a strange and misplaced open window. Once at the library, he remained there, accidently falling asleep, an open book functioned as his cushion, until he woke with a start the next morning as a hand placed itself on his back.

Turning his head at breakneck speed, purple eyes locked with sapphire blue. A newly rejuvenated Francis stood before him, skin a healthy shade and a vibrant air surrounding him. Francis smiled at his younger companion, offering his own hand to pull Matthew up from his chair. Together the pair walked to Matthew's room, Francis promising to meet him after breakfast.

Matthew hastily changed into clean clothes, the sight of a well and cheerful looking Francis plastered in his mind and the word "How?" repeating over and over again in his head like a broken record. He raced down the stairs and into the kitchen ready to start his day. As if his day wasn't strange enough, he discovered that Feliciano had disappeared and no one knew of his whereabouts.

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**I'm really sorry for making Feli "disappear" and I'll somehow get everyone back to the living realm later! Oh yeah, this was quick reviewed so there may be mistakes so please tell me if you find any!**

**So...on another note, I'm going to be going over all my stories that I've written so far and do some fixing up of them. I'll probably be making small changes and whatnot so that they flow better and are overall better than when I originally posted them. I thought that it would be nice since it's been ages since I posted some of them and since that time I might be able to find some glaring mistakes. **

**Also, I don't think that I'll be able to post anything until Halloween is over with. As many as you know, next week is Hetalia Day so my Sunday will be gone as I will be in Denver for probably a good chunk of time celebrating with all the Hetalia people out there. I'll also be finishing up my Dr. Stein cosplay in all my free time so that it'll be ready for Halloween (it's almost done too. I'm just waiting for my wig to come in and the lab coat so I can sew stitches into it). However, after Halloween, I should be able to get back into writing and posting on a regular basis, giventhat I don't have any major tests...**

**Sorry for the really long author's note :( I hope everyone has a wonderful week and Hetalia Day!  
**


	8. Afterwards

A Secret Hidden From You

Chapter 8: Afterwards

**Hey everyone! I'm working on getting out all the replies to my story "Sometimes, Things Don't Always Go As Planned." I just didn't have a lot of time this weekend to do it but I will get them out. About this chapter, I may have screwed up the continuity since I haven't really worked on this story in a very long while so yeah...**

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The light of new morning reflected across the rather large pond in the gardens. Birds flew through the air and the scent of spring hung about. Many people around the castle absorbed the liveliness of the newfound season and those working found it to be a booster in their work ethics. The servants who were lucky enough in not having to do their chores and who had the pleasure of walking about in the sun without the possibility of being fatally burned, enjoyed themselves a little spring time rays and took their breaks in the park like wonders of Mr. Bonnefoy's garden.

To everyone else, it was a time to soak up some spring sun but to Matthew, it was just another day. He had not seen Francis since the day before Feliciano had disappeared and that very fact was what fueled his worry and curiosity. He knew something was going on in the castle, with everyone disappearing and Francis going through those strange cyclic changes, but he really didn't want to believe it. The castle had become his home and he very much did not want to leave, and plus, Francis had been so nice to him. Matthew hadn't had any prior experiences in being a servant but he knew that Francis had to be among the rare, since most servants were not treated as nicely as him.

Speaking of the elegant man, Matthew caught sight of him running down the corridor towards him. His eyebrows lifted and a look of shock morphed onto his features.

"F-Francis! I haven't seen you for a few days! I was starting to get worried!"

"I'm fine Matthew! And there's no need to worry about me, you know." He let out a laugh and tossed his golden hair. "I've been looking for you all day. There's something I wanted to ask you!"

"Ok…B-but you really don't have to ask me. I-I'm your servant remember. I have to do anything you want me to."

"Alright then, if you put it that way. Matthew, later you and I are going to go into town and meet some of my friends. So, in order for you to be ready, I want you to stop working and take the rest of the day off. And before you say anything, I'll have Charles do the rest of your chores. The carriage will leave at five so that gives you a good six hours to clean and prepare yourself. I want you to make a good impression on them so don't get messy in between got it?"

The other blonde, speechless over the whole process of events, nodded his head.

"Good. I'll see you then."

With that, the tall blonde turned and ran off, yelling happily about for Charles and acting strangely out of character. He was excited over something and Matthew was suspicious about what was really going on. The boy sighed and made his way back towards his room, and then towards the bathroom to clean himself off. Once he was through, he looked at the clock, noticing that he still had about five hours to kill.

"Well, I might as well do something productive with my time," he shrugged as he made his way to the large library that Francis had presented to him a few days prior.

Opening the doors, he was slightly blinded by the many lights hanging from the ceiling. He shielded his eyes and walked into the grand room, closing the heavy entrance doors as he went. Once his eyes were adjusted, he began to explore the massive collection.

He walked through the rows of books looking for something that looked interesting enough. Finding a few that caught his attention, he pulled them out and started to create a pile on a nearby chair. As he walked through the library, he decided to check out the back, thinking that there would be much older selections, the thought of checking out the nearby town's history still very much lodged in the back of his mind.

When he scoured the dark and dusty shelves in the back of the large room, he managed to knock into one of the large book towers, making it shake as it threatened to fall. Afraid and unsure of what to do in a case as the one before him, Matthew threw his weight onto the wobbling tower. He managed to steady it as a few books rained on him from some of the case's higher shelves and unable to block himself a few of them ( a large grey one in particular) hit him on top the head.

Once the certain catastrophe was avoided, Matthew let out a sigh and plopped down onto the floor. While the pain in his head began to disappear, he started to clean up the mess, rubbing his injured spot and picking up the books and placing them back onto the shelves. As he was reaching for one of the last remaining books, he noticed the old, dark, dust covered book that had whacked him on the head. He didn't know what it was about the book that caught his attention but he felt the sudden urge to open it, almost like he was meant to open that very book and read its contents.

He picked the ancient manuscript up and blew off a few layers of dust from the cover, coughing a little as he inhaled some of it. Once his fit was over, he looked back at the volume and quickly noticed that the cover was a faded light grey, made only greyer and older looking by the dust that still covered and was probably permanently stuck to it. Gently grasping the ancient book, he tenderly cracked it open revealing yellowed parchment and faded words. His curiosity grew tenfold and the need to acquire the knowledge held within the curious hardback only grabbed at his mind more than it already had. Suddenly, the once quiet room was loud with the boisterous ringing of the grandfather clock in the entrance way.

Startled, Matthew jumped a bit, his heart racing at the booming bell tones of the contraption. He secured the aged book in his arms and ran up to time piece, checking the hour only to find out that he had just thirty minutes until he had to meet up with his master.

"Shoot! I need to meet up with Francis!"

Matthew raced down the long stretch of corridor that lead from the library to the rest of the manor, stopping only once to toss the book onto his bed next to Kumajirou. He reached the grand entrance to the large mansion in record time, panting a little as he skidded to a halt in front of the door. As he waited patiently, he took the time to check himself in large full body mirror that was conveniently placed beside the wooden coat rack and the umbrella holder.

"There." He brushed off some dust from his jacket and pants. "Now I won't look too much like a slob. Don't want to be embarrassing myself or Francis in front of his friends now."

"Ah, Matthew!"

He looked up at the mention of his name. He bowed as Francis came up to him, hoping that he got all the dust off his clothes.

"Come," Francis motioned to the door, "the carriage is waiting outside."

Matthew opened the door for his master, following him into their waiting black stagecoach complete with curtains over the rather large windows. When the vehicle began to mover, he realized that he forgot his usual umbrella, but he believed that it didn't really matter as the sun was sinking farther in the west. He reasoned that by the time they would reach the village, night would have already fallen.

The two sat together in the somewhat dark coach, Francis looking all excited (for what Matthew didn't really know but assumed he would find out sooner or later) and himself, reserved and hoping that he didn't make a fool of himself in front of Francis' friends. He hoped that they were pleasant, as the people he had met before being shipped off to his new home were not and were rather mean. His past experiences aboard the slave ship had greatly influenced the shy way he acted around those he was just meeting for the first time.

The carriage ride was long and bumpy and other than the fact of meeting some close people to his master, Matthew had nothing really to think about other than that grey book sitting on his bed. He pondered over what could be hidden within those yellowed pages, locked away in the washed out words. He let out a soft sigh wishing he could be there instead of here.

"The book will have to wait," he thought. "But it'll be something to look forward to after going through this. I'll think of it as an award for stepping out of my comfort bubble."

With that, the carriage suddenly stopped and he hopped out, holding the door open for Francis. Once he closed the stagecoach's doors, he turned to survey his surroundings, expecting the familiar gas lit streets of the town he had began to love. He was sorely mistaken.

Instead of the quaint seaside town, all Matthew could see was the massive, crystal like castle they had been dropped off in front of. His mouth hung open until Francis laughed, telling him to shut it before anything flew into it. Closing his mouth, he followed Francis up the elegant stairs to the entrance of the large palace like structure. Francis held open the door for the younger as he peeked inside, letting out a gasp of surprise over the extravagance of the whole place. He had never seen anything like it and wished that he could just get away.

Without knowing it, Matthew had been duped into going to one of the largest balls in the area, held by one of Francis' closest friends. Oh how he wished he was back in his quiet room, alone, and not near so many rich people, all judging him and the like. At least he figured out why Francis had acted so giddy at his agreement to come along.

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**You're probably thinking "What the crap!" Don't worry, it'll make sense next chapter. Please, please, please check out my profile for information regarding updates and such as I have changed my workings around.**

**PS: PLEASE REVIEW! It will help me get better at writing these chapters!  
**


	9. Secrets inside Yellowed Pages

A Secret Hidden From You

Chapter 9: Secrets inside Yellowed Pages

**Hello everyone! I know I'm a chapter behind and I was going to do a double post but the other chapter didn't get typed...It'll be up sometime this week, probably after my chem test on Tuesday. I thought it would be appropriate to update this story on my one year anniversary of being on this site as it was my very first one. :D Please enjoy this new chapter!**

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RING! RING! RING!

Matthew groaned and buried his head deeper within the pushiness of his pillows hoping to drown out the metal on metal clang of his alarm clock. As much fun as he had last night, he wanted his full nights rest. It wasn't his fault that Francis had wanted to stay the whole night and into the morning at his "little gathering" of his so called friends. In fact, Matthew would hardly call the spectacular event "little". It was a huge affair, a ball at one of the neighboring city's castles that attracted rich party goers from all around the area.

He remembered walking through the large crystal doors and up the velvet covered stairs of the main staircase. Together the two walked into the largest dancing rooms he had ever seen, but it wasn't like he had seen anything like it before though. He could still see the light reflecting off the crystals hanging from the massive chandeliers dangling from the ceiling, the vivid colors dancing across the glass window panes. The plates he ate off of marveled him, as they were composed of glass with intricate designs delicately etched into them. Matthew also had his first taste of alcohol, though it came in the form of a very elegant flute of champagne, the sweetness of the carbonated drink still lingered in his mouth. The food was absolutely mouth watering and had never tasted anything much like it, even in Francis' abode, though he attributed it to being a servant than an actual occupant of the home.

Once he and Francis had their fill, he remembered the flamboyant man running off into the crowd of dancing guests, only to come back with a silver haired man with red eyes. He was introduced as Gilbert Beilschmidt, a long time friend of Francis. Matthew was surprised that Francis failed to mention to the other that he was a servant. Instead, he was introduced a foreign friend staying in the Bonnefoy mansion while on a business trip. Gilbert laughed loudly and held out his hand while Matthew shyly shook it. Once again, the man named Gilbert cackled, saying something to the effect of "Intimidated by my awesomeness now are we?"

For the rest of the night, the three stuck together making an interesting trio of sorts. Matthew watched and played his part of the shy wall flower looking after his friends as the other two worked on getting drunk off the seemingly never ending champagne.

As the night drew to an end and the hours of dawn quickly approached, Matthew remembered somehow convincing an incredibly intoxicated Francis that it was time to go home. He managed to flag down their carriage driver and as he went to fetch their ride, Matthew sat with Francis, looking up into the sky at the twinkling stars. It was then he felt his companion's eyes upon him and he turned his face, only to come face to face with fogged blue eyes.

"What is it? Is there something wrong?"

The other continued to contemplatively stare at him, unnerving Matthew to where the younger started to fidget under the intense gaze. In the darkness, he could hear the clap-clapping sound of hooves against pavement as their ride home drew near. As he turned around to announce the arrival of their ride, he had an unexpected surprise.

Out of nowhere, Francis grabbed hold of his head, locking their lips together in a kiss. Stunned by the other's action, Matthew held still, eyes wide open and shock clearly plastered on his face. As the sound of hooves drew nearer, he managed to come to his senses and tore his now beet red face away from Francis, who in the moonlight looked rather sad at the loss of connection even though Matthew pegged it as an illusion. Once the carriage pulled up, he never felt so relieved for a distraction from the previous events. He helped his inebriated friend into the horse drawn vehicle and they were off back towards their castle.

RING! RING! RING! RI-

Finally tired of the obnoxious sound coming from his clock, Matthew flung out his hand from under the covers and slammed it on the time keeper, successfully shutting it off and silencing it. Awake and aware of his surroundings, Matthew sat up in bed and stretched until the lovely popping of his lower back filled his ears. He moved off his bed and got dressed in his normal attire, ready for breakfast and work, although the awkwardness of last night still lingered in the forefront of his brain. He would rather avoid Francis for the day while the events of yesterday settled down but he knew it wouldn't happen.

Just as he was getting ready to leave his room, he noticed a piece of parchment lying at the foot of his door. Curious as to why it was there, he reached down and picked it up. Unfolding the letter, he began to read the delicate writing belonging to his master.

_Matthew,_

_ I'm sure that you had fun yesterday, as I know I did~__I don't remember too much but judging from the fact that I'm here and not there at Gilbert's place, I'm going to say thanks for bringing me home. You probably have a hangover the size of town…_

Matthew put a hand to his mouth to stop the small laugh he let out from becoming louder. He had a hangover? Not from the small amount of champagne he had drunk. Francis on the other hand…The young man shook his head and looked back to the letter in his pale hands.

_Anyway, because of that and because you accompanied me to the party, I'm giving you another day off. Don't worry about your duties; I've already got it all taken care of._

_ ~Francis~_

He let out a sigh. After all the trouble he went through with getting dressed and surviving the onslaught of the clock, he didn't have to work. With a groan, he shut his door and walked back to his bed, ready to catch a few more z's. Suddenly, he felt the soft carpet on his face and after a while realized that he fell. He rolled onto his back and sat up, looking for what he could have caused his plummet. There, right next to his left foot was an old grey book…The book! The one he had discovered up in the library yesterday!

His eyes widened in recognition of the old thing and he crawled over towards it. He gently picked up the aged book and scampered onto his bed, getting comfortable as he did so.

"I might as well read it since it's here. I wonder what it's about." He examined the covering of the book, flipping it over looking at it from all angles. "There's not title on the cover or the spine…"

All the more curious, he opened the volume and began to read. Amazingly, it was a novel about the town and its surrounding area, just the type of book he had been searching for. After a good hour of analysis, he began to doubt the fact that the town had anything to do with why Francis went thought the strange periodic cycles. That was, until he turned the page.

_…During the mid 1600's, the town was effected by suspicious vampire like activity. Many villagers would go missing for days, only to have their lifeless body recovered days later. The complexions of the found bodies were always the same, bone pale skin with two holes in their neck. Though most were found stone dead, there were a few who would miraculously escape from the clutches of their vampire captor. These people would be near death, their will to live gone as well as something the people called the " life energy." Of the few who did survive, they weren't alive for very long. Records state that after three months of their arrival back in town, each survivor transformed into one of the blood sucking beasts and would prey upon the villagers. Not soon after those first attacks, the villagers drove those away who were infected back into the woods to die._

_ It is because of these numerous vampires that the town soon obtained its reputation of being the vampire capital of the world. Due to its large vampire population, many so called "vampire hunters" ventured into town, all claiming that they were the ones who would rid the good people of the vermin that terrorized their streets at night during certain parts of the year. All would venture bravely into the woods and none would ever come out. This, combined with the large vampire population is what lured a young man and his family into town, a young man who would acclaim greatness and prosperity in this very place._

_ His name was Bonnefoy, first name unknown as he never went by it, and he moved his family here in 1667. Upon arrival, he claimed that he would put an end to the curse that fell upon the village. Many laughed at him and doubted his claims. Fired by the mockery and faithlessness of the citizens, Bonnefoy vowed that he would rid the town of its vampires and prove everyone wrong. Taking up a room at one of the local inns, he left his wife and two children for a total of three days, in which he disappeared and wasn't heard from._

_ As the first and second days flew by, many began to doubt the ability of the young hunter and soon all believed that he too had been transformed into a beast. But, as the third day came to an end, he appeared, the head of a terrifyingly gruesome creature in his possession. A mark on the creature's head signified it as the main vampire, the one who had started the mess. As he entered town, those who had been turned into the blood sucking creatures appeared too, normal and completely human once more._

_ The town hailed him as a hero and was given money and eternal fame._

There, the book abruptly stopped mentioning this Mr. Bonnefoy. Matthew was troubled. Why did it just stop? Surely a text on the history of the town would mention more about their hero, wouldn't it?

Disappointed and feeling defeated, Matthew closed the book. In a sudden revelation, he remembered the room he had found when he was first brought to the mansion, the room with all the portraits and old artifacts. Judging by all the stuff he saw and remembered, he concluded that it would be the best place to inquire more information on this old relative of his master.

It took him a good while, but he was able to find the corridor that led to the room. As he stood in front of the door and grasped the handle, doubt and guilt started to flood his mind. He knew he probably shouldn't be snooping around in Francis' private life but he cared about his master. He wanted to help him, he wanted to know why he was subjected into getting sick all the time, and why people kept disappearing. In other words, Matthew wanted to know more about him than what he put out.

"It's either now or never," he whispered as he twisted the knob and slowly pushed open the door.

The room was unbelievably dark and musty. As he tried to find a switch, Matthew breathed in dust and started a coughing fit. He assumed that the room hadn't been opened in years and that he had inhaled probably half a century of dust. After his fit died down, he found the little device for the lights and flipped it on, flooding the room with illumination from a small, plain chandelier from the ceiling.

He gasped as he looked around. There was the painting of the young fourteen year old, still where he had seen it before. Large amounts of books were scattered all over the place and the furniture was all covered in dust. Starting his search, Matthew began with the painting that had drawn him to the room in the first place.

Walking over to it and lightly picking it up, he examined the faded work of art. The boy within its frame resembled Francis in almost every detail, except his face. The boy was younger than the real Francis obviously so his face was much rounder and child like. He had blue eyes that Matthew assumed would have matched the ocean blue of his master's as well as the straw yellow of his hair had it not been for the sheer age of the work. Had the painting been in its prime, he would have guessed that it was Francis in the picture. Looking for a date, he flipped the artwork over and scanned the back.

"This can't be right…the picture is over one hundred years old. Either that or the boy isn't Francis. It can't be a coincidence…can it? He resembles him so much…"

Puzzled by his findings, Matthew decided to look around some more. He gently placed the picture back where it had originally rested and started to look about. At first he leafed through some of the molding books. Most were of trivial subjects, native plants and animals and some on vampire hunting, but nothing that could help him in his wild search for information. He managed at one point to wrestle out an old diary and made a mental note to return back to the book as he set it aside on one of the rickety, round tables in the room. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, something caught his attention. There, behind one of the smaller and shorter bookshelves by the wall was something pointy and dark sticking out.

Intrigued, he gently pulled on the dark, sturdy thing out from behind the shelf. To his amazement, he discovered that it was another framed painting but this time it was of a man, a woman, and their two children, one of whom was the boy in the previous one. At first glance, he assumed that the man was the Mr. Bonnefoy that the earlier book had mentioned as he did fit the description (blonde with stubble on his chin and striking blue eyes) and the woman to be his wife. The two boys must have been the sons they had brought with them when they moved to the town.

As with the other painting, Matthew flipped it around and searched for a date but to his disappointment, there was none to be found. Undeterred, he turned it around again and after some time, judged the painting to be older than the portrait. He based his conclusions on the appearance of the lookalike Francis. In the family portrait, the boy was much younger than the other one in the lone picture, thus making the family painting older. At the end of his inquiry, Matthew gently placed the canvas back where he had found it, sliding it slowly and carefully behind the bookshelf.

Overall satisfied with the fruits of his little search, he walked over to journal he had uncovered earlier and tucked it under his arm. Once he opened the door, breathing in the clean and fresh air, he looked out and surveyed his surroundings, as he still felt a little bad for rummaging through Francis' private stuff. After concluding that the coast was clear he hastily walked to his room, excited, hopeful, and a little nervous about what he would discover in the old book.

* * *

**As you can see, I'm kind of awkward with any kind of love scenes (kissing is included) so any tidbit of advice would help. **

**Please, please please review! It would help me a lot in improving my writing ability! I'll give you a heart if you will! ~ (I love this thing )  
**


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